May 3, 2016

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Slug and Snail invasion – a solution

So, ‘they’ say our gardens are in for a slug invasion following a wet summer and warm winter. Help! What can be done? I have suffered from slug damage for years. My seedlings especially taking a hit.

A delphinium seedling surrounded by protective pellets

I have tried everything I heard of including crushed egg shells and barriers of pine needles, salt, coffee grounds, nothing worked. Beer traps certainly did but I found it most upsetting to have to deal with the corpses. Copper tape attached to pots worked, so did the environmentally friendly slug pellets made of ferric phosphate.
Recently I have been using a Grazers’ product targeting slugs and snails – a formula which is basically a harmless calcium mix. Non toxic but off-putting to birds, rabbits and crucially, slugs. I have used it in my cold frames on my overwintering plants and recently for hardening off seedlings. The cold frames have always been a harbour for slugs which in the growing season needed removal every day. A bit of a chore.
However, since I have used the Grazers Slug and Snails product … I hesitate to rely on the fact that I haven’t found one slug since I started using it … but I now respray regularly, once a week on average, not on very wet days.
Here is the Grazers website giving loads of information
That’s my solution. Do you have one?